FMP Proposal.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT PROPOSAL

 

Student Name: Tyler Joshua Fowler   Course/ Year/Module: BA Hons Photography - Year 3/Level 6 - FP6005 Final Major Project   Student Number: K1709045

 

 

Working Title

‘This Is Me’

 

 

·       Summary

My idea for my Final Major Project was to create a series of ten photographs, both newly created and found imagery, based around portrait, self-portrait, and documentary photography, all chosen and created specifically to document and create a narrative based on my own experiences as a Transgender male and my own struggles with gender expression and accepting myself whilst growing up. I decided to create my project in this way as I planned to create this work as a form of documentation, almost like a photo diary, depicting what it was like for me growing up as a child growing up in a body I knew and felt wasn’t right for me. I wanted these photographs to be a very candid and open representation of that, allowing my target audience an insight into my own gender expression and identity; therefore, raising further awareness about Transgender lives and the existence of Trans people.

 

 

·       Influences: Photographers & Publications you will research

For my final major project, I decided to look over and research the work of other contemporary and historical artists. These visual references enabled me to gain a better understanding of my own chosen themes of focus as well as some creative ways that other artists and photographers have produced their own work based on the same theme. Some of these artists and photographers were Del LaGrace Volcano, Catherine Opie, Lia Clay Miller, and Claude Cahun. The work of these artists and photographers were all portraiture, and self-portraiture, based, focusing on gender identity and expression all within a studio or external location for their photoshoot.   Here's some of their work below:   Del LaGrace Volcano: https://www.dellagracevolcano.se/gallery/me,-myself-eye-35548932   Catherine Opie: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/catherine-opie-4641 https://www.guggenheim.org/teaching-materials/catherine-opie-american-photographer/portraits   Lia Clay Miller: https://www.liaclay.com/bio     Claude Cahun: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/claude-cahun-10611

 

·       Intended techniques: Describe the media and processes you may be using.

My final major project will consist of ten digital images made using my DSLR camera of newly made self-portraiture photographs as well as photographs made from “found imagery” which will consist of me as a child (ages 4-5 onwards) and a teenager (16 years old).   The self-portraiture photographs will be made within my own home, using my DSLR camera and a tripod and a small ring light to help with the lighting of my images. Once taken they will then be edited minimally within Adobe Photoshop just to fix the colours, tones, and lighting and shadows within the images. I wanted to keep the editing minimal for this series of work as I want them to be really candid and open images that will document the process of me growing up feeling uncomfortable in the body, I was born in and how I dealt with that growing up through both the expression of my gender and the fluidity of it until I came to the realisation that I was Transgender and felt more comfortable presenting myself in a more masculine way with male pronouns and a male name.   In order to document this idea further by combining those created images with photographs of me as a child as from the age of 4-10 I was presenting masculine, getting my hair cut short, wearing mostly football kits or just the shorts of a football kit and no shirt, even telling other kids my own age who were outside of my family,  that I was a boy and using the name Jack without any family members knowing. But as I grew up and experienced bullying in high school due to having short hair, I went back to presenting more feminine. I only have one photo of myself from this time and that’s the prom photo I have included within this series. I feel that the fact that I only have this one photo from back then shows clearly how uncomfortable I was with presenting as female.

 

·       Outcomes: What do you aim for your final outcome to be?

My final major project will consist of ten digital images made using my DSLR camera of newly made self-portraiture photographs as well as photographs made from “found imagery” which will consist of me as a child (ages 4-5 onwards) and a teenager (16 years old). These will then be handed in and presented in chronological order based on the age I am within the photograph as A3 semi-gloss prints.

 

·       Costings/ Budget – Outline in detail all possible costs for your project and calculate a total cost for whole semester – including exhibition installation and self-promotion costs.

As my final outcomes for my final major project will consist of 10 A3 sized semi-gloss photographic prints I will be using the Kingston University making studios to print out my final images: ·       A3 Semi-Gloss prints at the university cost £3 per page, so all together the price range to print all ten of my images will be about £30. ·       There won’t be any travel costs needed since all of my photographs will be taken at my own home, within the house, with myself as the sitter. ·       I did, however, need to buy myself a tripod for my DSLR camera which cost £25 plus postage to be delivered to my house via amazon. ·       I also brough some Transgender coloured face paint which cost £4. ·       There was also the £6 price at the Art Shop at Kingston University for my sketchbook to document the research and processes behind this project. All together the entire project cost me about £65 to gather together all the materials and equipment I needed in order to start planning, researching, and creating my final outcomes.

 

 

 

·       Schedule – Create a detailed schedule of project production leading all the way to your deadline.

·       Late September- Early October – We were handed the project brief for the FMP in class. ·       The first two weeks I spent planning and producing ideas that I could potentially do for my final major project. ·       After that I started looking into and discussing the artists and photographers whose work I would look at and analyse with my university lecturers, discussing my idea in detail with them during class and tutorial sessions to make sure they knew and had a clear idea of what it was I intended to do. ·       In the beginning and middle of November I started to get all that planning down onto paper (my research blog), including artist research and the detailed plans of my ideas for what my FMP could potentially be about. ·       Then in December, I handed in the FMP proposal plan and showed the work I had done on my research blog up until then. ·       I spent the first few weeks of January, after the Christmas break, focused on my dissertation so I didn’t pick up my FMP work again until around February which is when I started to plan out my photoshoot through sketches of what some of my final outcomes could potentially look like at the end of this project. ·       In March, I started to take the photographs for my FMP, and I ordered the tripod for my DSLR camera. I also started to go through the box of family photos that I had at home, trying to find the photos I felt were most relevant to my themes of focus for this project. ·       In April, I decided in to plan out the order that I would submit this series of photographs. It only really made sense to do this in chronological order based on the age I was when the photograph were originally taken.        Submission and Deadline date was May 4th 2023.